ARCHIVED - Murcia government seeks Paramount clarification

The Paramount park in Alhama de Murcia seems likely to be abandoned

It is now three weeks since the death in Madrid of Jesús Samper, the president of Real Murcia football club and the man in charge of getting the Paramount Theme Park project off the ground, and as the new year begins efforts are being made to sort out the affairs he left behind.

Real Murcia have already appointed Guillermo Martínez-Abarca as the new president and the team continue to top the table of the Second Division B Group 4, but the situation regarding the Paramount project looks far less optimistic. Before Sr Samper’s death no investors in the project had been secured but nonetheless he had refused to acknowledge the definitive failure of the scheme, and now the regional government in Murcia is asking the businessman’s family to decide what the future holds for the Alhama de Murcia project.

Initially the regional government invested 200,000 euros in the purchase of 20% of the shares in Premursa, the company formed to promote and build the Paramount park, but this share was cut to just 0.21% after more capital was injected from elsewhere. At present over 99% of Premursa is owned by Santa Mónica Financial Services, S.L., a subsidiary of Jesús Samper’s company Grupo Santa Mónica Sports, S.L, and although at some point the government is likely to want its money back in theory it should be easily recoverable out of the value of the land which was purchased in Alhama for the Paramount Park and Lifestyle Center to be built.

This is the opinion of Juan Hernández, the minister for Economic Development, Tourism and Employment in the regional government, but at the same Sr Hernández is keen for decisions to be made about the future of Paramount in Alhama and he is demanding that the future administrators of the project inform him of their intentions.

During the last few months it has seemed apparent that the Paramount project is doomed to failure, having failed to gain support from investors after being launched in the middle of Spain’s economic crisis. The Premursa office in Alhama de Murcia has been closed, and the start of construction has been put off time and again.

There is always a chance that the death of Jesús Samper could coincide with a miraculous turnaround in the scheme’s fortunes, but at present it appears more likely that the grand Paramount theme park project in Alhama de Murcia will be re-orientated, postponed indefinitely or abandoned altogether.